T-Shirt Upcycle: Adding Lace to a Shirt

Adding lace inserts to the sides of a simple t-shirt is a really fun and easy way to sort of upcycle it and make it look not only a little bit fancier, but look something different than maybe anyone else who also bought the same t-shirt, what theirs looks like. So you can see here, I just have on both sides of my t-shirt, just a nice little lace insert. If you look at it from the side, you can see it's just a very simple triangle shape. And because of the way the lace that I chose sort of has this really scalloped edge, I wanted to utilize that in the design of this and make it so it actually hangs down lower than the edge of the shirt, just making it sort of that much fancier. So in order to do this, it's really simple, doesn't require a whole lot of measuring other than measuring how much lace that you have.

So this was just a really fun sort of ombre look fabric that I bought, but I only bought a very small amount of it. I think I bought maybe 1/4 yard or a very small amount, maybe even 1/3 of a yard. And I didn't have a whole lot left after what I used it for. So this is really the width that I have to work with when it comes to my shirt, and that's really more than enough. You don't need a whole lot to make your shirt really look that much nicer.

So what I need to do is know how much workable width I have here. And what I mean by that is I want to sort of measure from the middle of one of my scallops here to about the middle of another scallop, because I kinda want it to end and look cohesive rather than having, you know, one of the seams end here and the other end down here in the middle of a scallop. I kinda wanna end in the middle of one on both sides. So that is roughly about eight inches. So what I wanna do is, on my actual shirt where I'm cutting out from the side seam, I'm going to measure over four inches on either side of the side seam.

So here is just my very simple, basic white t-shirt, I actually found these on sale at a big box store. They were a dollar a piece and so I just grabbed a bunch of them and that's a really fun way to sort of try out a new project like this, if you have never done it before, is to buy some fairly inexpensive t-shirts and practice this idea or concept on, and then if you like it, or you like the way it turns out, you can even buy maybe more higher-end shirt, more expensive shirt and do the same process there. Now, since I'm not going to do a whole lot of marking and measuring, I wanna make sure that both sides of my t-shirt for my lace inserts look the same. So I wanna cut them at the same time, but in order to do that, I need to make sure that they are laying right on top of each other, how I need them to be. So that means I need my seams to be lined up one right on top of the other.

So I can do that by opening up the shirt and making sure they're lined up, one on top of the other. I can also do it by feel. You can kind of feel where that seam is, use your fingers, and make sure it's lined up, and once it is lined up and you get it all adjusted, we'll put some pins in it to hold it. Again, going by feel, all the way up to right underneath the arm hole a bit, make sure the seams are right on top of each other, and then I'm just going to put a couple pins in place right along that seam, just so nothing shifts. And I know that's also going to be far enough out of the way of where I'm going to be cutting that I'm not going to accidentally hit a pin with my scissors at all.

Once I have all my pins in place, again, I measured that I had about eight inches of workable lace. So I wanna measure over four inches on either side of my seam line here, and I can go in and just make a mark. So one, two, three, four, just to right here. Same thing on this side, one, two, three, four. And now I need to know how high up the side to make my insert, and this all comes to personal preference, how high up you want your lace to be.

The farther down it is, obviously it's gonna be sort of a little short triangle. You can go all the way up to right underneath the arm hole. What I recommend is being at least a couple inches away from that, because, for one, you don't really wanna have to mess with that seam under there, it can get a little bit tricky. Also, depending on what kind of lace you're using in your insert, you may not want it all the way up sort of in the underarm area of your shirt, 'cause I can get a little bit uncomfortable. For me, I wanted it to be at least approximately five inches down from underneath my arm hole opening.

That would mean, it's usually right around any maybe bra line or anything you're wearing so that nothing will show there. That's about five inches underneath your arm hole opening. So, again, I can just measure down from right at that seam there, five or so inches. So one, two, three, four, I've got five inches here. Oops, there we go.

Go ahead and make a mark, and now what I just need to do is draw a giant triangle. All I'm doing is connecting my three marks. So I have my mark here at this seam line. I'm going to connect it to my mark down here at the lower edge of my shirt, and I don't have to do a solid line. I can do sort of a dotted line, just enough that I can see it so I can cut along that line.

So made a mark on one side I'm gonna do the same thing on the other side. Again, I have my mark up here, got my mark down right at the edge of my lower edge of my shirt. Go ahead and make my triangle there, and now this is what I'm going to cut out. I'm going to just go ahead and use a simple pair of scissors and go ahead and cut along those lines that I just drew. I'm gonna go ahead and move this pin just slightly, because it was in the way of one of my lines, and I can go ahead and cut.

This is probably the scariest part of the first time you do any kind of store-bought or ready-made upcycle or alteration or change to something because you are actually cutting a section away from a perfectly good shirt. So it can be a little bit intimidating, but, again, this is a pretty simple upcycle to start with, and then once you've mastered this one or maybe done a few others and get them under your belt, it won't be so nerve wracking to cut into a nice shirt for the first time. So I'm gonna leave this triangle here, because I'm actually going to use it as my pattern piece to cut out my lace insert. You can see how this is a really sort of easy project, doesn't require a whole lotta tools, just a simple ruler and a pair of scissors and you can create your own pattern pieces to create your own inserts. So I have my triangle here and, again, I'm gonna sort of line up the lower edge here.

Again, I want my scallops to be hanging below the edge of my shirt. So all I'm gonna do is find an area right in the middle of the scallops where I can center my shirt. So you can see I'm in the middle of one here, in the middle of one here, and this is going to be the big triangle insert shape that I cut out and put in my shirt. So I have it all lined up, and, again, this is two layers of lace. This is folded in half, so just like we cut our triangle from both sides of the shirt out at the same time, I also wanna cut the triangles that I'm going to insert into my shirt at the exact same time.

Again, making sure that everything is exactly the same size. Okay. Get this one cut. Now I should mention too that I did this project or designed this sort of upcycle, easy lace insert, knowing that my seam allowance is, for the most, part negligible, because what I'm gonna be doing is sewing really, really close to the edge and then zigzag stitching over that, so I don't really need to account for a seam allowance. I'm also using a fairly loose-fitting t-shirt.

If you were doing this and you've selected a t-shirt that is very form fitting and you know that you can absolutely not spare even the smallest amount in terms of fit, then when you make, when you cut out your original triangle piece from your shirt, when you lay it on your lace, go ahead and add an extra 1/4 inch, or maybe 1/2 inch if you know you're gonna need that for fitting issues, but for the lightweight or loose-fitting t-shirt like what I'm doing, you do not need to add anything extra in. Okay, now that I have my insert pieces done, I can go ahead and add those back into my shirt. So we're essentially, we're cutting a triangle away from the shirt. We're going to add the triangle right back into the shirt. So I'm gonna separate out the layers of my t-shirt so I'm only working with one side at a time here, just like so, and I'm going to take one of my triangles and we're gonna work along one side first and then the other, and I'm going to sew using rights sides together and attach this side first.

So, again, I'm gonna line this up right into my opening, like so, and I'm definitely going to need to use some some pins just because knit fabric or jersey fabric, t-shirt fabric, can be a little bit slinky to work with. You can can see I get it all lined up down here at the lower end. Remember the lower edge of my t-shirt is lining up with the center of my scallop, so I had that little bit of edge that gonna hang below my actual t-shirt, and I can go ahead and put some pins in place. I like to put maybe more pins than I might need, just because sewing with this t-shirt fabric, especially if you're not used to it, or haven't done it a lot, it's very different than sewing with a quilters cotton or, you know, a fleece or flannel or something like that. Gonna be a little bit trickier to work with, so I feel the extra pins just sort of help make sure everything stays in place and nothing shifts while you sew.

Add a few more all the way up to the point. And when I sew this, I'm going to stop and start stitching right at my seam here. So my existing seam, this is where I'm gonna start and stop stitching. So I'm gonna go ahead and put my pin right there. So no matter which direction, either I'm coming to it or I'm starting at it, I know that's the start and stop line.

So, again, I'm gonna take this over to my machine and I'm just doing a straight stitch, very, very close to the edge. Make sure nothing is folded up. Go ahead and move my needle over so where it's right where I want it to be and I'm gonna go ahead and use my hand wheel to lower my needle in place, 'cause I want to lower my needle right where that pin was. Now that my needle's in place, I can take that pin out and go ahead and start stitching. I am gonna go ahead and do a couple backstitches, just to make sure it's nice and secure, and I'm gonna stitch right along this edge.

Now, normally when you're sewing with a stretch or a jersey fabric, t-shirt fabric, you'll wanna use a stretch needle or a ballpoint needle. Depending on the type of lace that you are adding to your fabric, it may even sort of work like a stabilizer and give the t-shirt a little bit more body and it'll be easier to work with than if you were simply just sewing layers of that knit fabric together. So I'm just going right along the edge. I'm removing those pins as I get to them. So I don't sew over the top of them.

I don't wanna damage a needle or anything. I'm just going to continue all the way down to the lower edge of the shirt. Once I get to that lower edge, I'm gonna go right up to the edge and, again, do a couple backstitches to secure, just like I did to start. Okay, so you can see that I have one side of my lace insert stitched to my t-shirt. I don't have any puckers or any gathering of the fabric.

Again, I have my ballpoint needle in place, but also this lace is helping to act as a stabilizer, making it a little bit stiffer, easier to sew. And now I would take and attach the other half of my lace insert to the other part of my t-shirt. So I'm gonna have to sort of fold this around. So I'm, again, sewing with the right sides together like so. I have my point right up here.

I wanna make sure that this is, I'm lining up both sides of my shirt so that they come together at a very nice point and I don't have any puckers or anything. That'll be easier to see once it's stitched and laying flat. And then, again, I'm gonna put some pins all the way along here. Once I get down to this lower edge, you can see how the end of my t-shirt is gonna end right at the end of the center of that scallop, how I cut it. So if it's easier to put one pin at the beginning and one at the end and then space your pins all the way long, you can do that, just like so.

Put pins in, and then all you'd have to do is take it over to your machine and do the exact same stitch. So since it's the same stitch and I've already done that once, I'm gonna show you on this shirt that has already been sewn what this is going to look like. So, just like this, here's my, you already saw that I had stitched one long side, I pinned, I stitched the other side, and then this is how your shirt would look on the right side. And then on the wrong side, you have a couple options when it comes to finishing because just that straight, simple stitch may not be enough to completely secure the lace, depending on how open of a pattern the lace is. It also isn't going to finish the edge of that t-shirt and you don't want that to ravel or anything.

So you can either take this, if you have a serger, you can serge right on that edge, or if you have just a regular machine like this, you can see on this one here, I've just taken my regular sewing machine and I've just done, it's a zigzag stitch right along the edge and it just helps to finish the edge of the t-shirt so nothing comes unraveled. So this is what it would look like once you're entirely done stitching. And if you wanna add yet another decorative element to it, you can add some top stitching. So, this side, what I did was I actually took and laid my fabric back out. So I already had my insert stitched in place and you can see right along the edge of my insert, I just did some top stitching.

And this just gives your upcycled t-shirt a little more professional finished look, and again, makes sure that everything is nice and secure and nothing's going to come out at all. So that's a fun and easy way to add lace inserts to the sides of your t-shirt. Now, one other little fun thing that you can do, just because, this is the fabric that I used. Again, it was this ombre sort of fabric and you can see that I cut these sort of V shapes out of it and used the ends, the actual lace ends of it, but then it came up to this really nice dark blue and I didn't even touch any of this fabric. So, again, on that sale rack where I got all those t-shirts for a dollar, there was different colors as well.

So you can absolutely use this on multiple t-shirts, if you want, and do the exact same technique. You can also, even, maybe from this dark blue, cut a simple little pocket design, add this, you know, little lace pocket or some other insert to your shirt. So you can not only make one shirt look really nice by upcycling it, but if you have multiple shirts and you have extra fabric from your first one, you might as well use it and add something fun to another shirt as well and you're pretty much getting a whole new wardrobe.